3 Kings
by Hallelujah72
Summary: The annual Summer Sun Celebration has come and Pinkie Pie is in charge! She wants to make this the best party ever and has just the idea for the main event. To invite her favorite band, yet there is a dark plot is being hatched with Spike right in the middle of it all! Can He and the band members save the town, and just exactly who are the 3 new colts? Read to find out!
1. Prologue

Prologue

Our story beings like many others, with the beginning of a celebration. The Summer Sun Celebration to be precise with our friend, and resident party fanatic, Pinkie Pie, in charge of organizing the jubilee for all of Ponyville. Surprisingly, this was the first time for our dear Pinkie Pie to be in charge of an event of such magnitude and to her credit, she was genuinely worried of how she was going to make it the something worth putting down in the history books. But that's when it hit her, the party-planning princess of Equestria was nothing if not resourceful, and by resourceful, I mean she had more than a few favors she could call in, one being more important than the others.

It was day one of the Summer Sun Celebration and preparations were nearly complete as Pinkie Pie and her armies of volunteers were making the finishing touches across Ponyville and on the newly built stage retro-fitted to the side of the town library in the center_. But they haven't arrived yet _thought Pinkie Pie as she paced the length of the stage to and fro frantically going over every reason why her main attraction had yet to come

_Maybe they never got my letter _

_Maybe they got lost _

_Maybe they got attacked by the great monkey warriors of the third dimension! _

Each random thought and excuse came to her faster and more absurdly than the last and continued until she had created a well-trodden rut in the stage. It would have been much worse for not the sudden calling of her name from afar in a voice she had not heard in many years.

"Heeeeyyyy! Pinks! How'ya doin' little girl"? The greetings came from behind Pinkie Pie in a urban accent, one that would not have been found out of place in cities like Vanhoover and other places so far north; she immediately whipped her head around to see the answer to her prayers.

Said answer came in a form of a lone pony from her filly-hood and a cart, the cart was a simple wooden cart meant to haul supplies and little else and in no regards was it interesting or appealing to the eye aside from the fact that there was nopony pulling it; as it were, it was being pushed along quite effortlessly by magic. What was interesting however, was the pony on top of the cart seemingly controlling the moving cart by the glow of his horn. The pony in question was of an average height and build at about 4' 6" with long silver hair and a pale white coat and a pair of aviators covering his eyes with a long tail of the same silvery color and a horn that extended nearly 10 inches. Yet his most intriguing feature was his lack of a cutie mark; just as Pinkie Pie remembered.

"Spear!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed and made like a pink bullet to the top of the cart as it neared the stage and embraced the incoming colt in a bone-crushing hug.

"Wassup, Pinks?" was the only thing the new pony was able to choke out from the constrictions of the embrace.

"What-is-up? EVERYTHING IS UP! THE BANNERS, THE POSTERS, THE CAKE, PIES, CANNONS, EVERYTHING IS UP AND I FEEL TERRIBLE!" Pinkie took a deep breath, and put her face so close to Spear's that their foreheads were touching, "I THOUGHT YOU GUYS WEREN'T GOING TO MAKE IT AND I WAS GOING TO HAVE TO COME UP WITH SOMETHING EQUALLY SUPER FANTABULOUS TO MA-". Spear broke the hold and promptly put his two hooves over Pinkie Pie's mouth as she continued to ramble on within the confines of her own lips.

"Sorry, we got here so late, we were… held up a few towns back" Spear leaned closer to Pinkie Pie as he felt her own mouth still moving, most likely spouting out more ideas on how she'd try to make up for Spear's supposed absence, Spear used one of his hooves to remove his sunglasses and leaned in closer so that Pinkie's pale blue eyes would be fixated on his own stormy gray ones, "but we're here now and that's what matters, right?"

Pinkie's mouth had finally begun to slow down and she slowly nodded her head up and down. Satisfied, Spear released her and asked, "Now, what were you saying?" to let her finish her outburst. "I was asking, where are your brothers?" Pinkie shook her head and continued in a-matter-of-fact tone, "Gosh, you should really learn to not ramble so much and not interrupt people." The white colt rolled his eyes and smiled, "Kay has gone off to find Sen I think, wherever that little guy is, playing hero most likely."


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter I

Spike was walking the edge of the Everfree forest looking for his friend Rainbow Dash. As it were Rainbow Dash was on cloud duty, obvious in light of the fact that she was the weather pony of the town. What was equally expected was for Rainbow Dash to keep true to her other title of being the head procrastinator of all of Ponyville (some say all of Equestria) as was made evident in the sudden abundance of clouds in around the town. This plethora of precipitation makers and the obvious cause was the very reason Spike was asked to make sure Rainbow was doing her job (that and the fact everypony else was still snout deep in work needed for the celebration).

Spike had walked all over the town looking up at the sky to catch a glimpse of the sky-blue mare, no doubt lazing atop one of the very white puff she was meant to keep away. As Spike began to toe the line near the Everfree he began to become scared, a gut reaction brought upon some of his past experiences in the foreboding forest. To speed up the process, he began to yell out to Rainbow Dash, trying so desperately to be as far away from the wood as soon as possible. However, Spike's yelling had not the desired effect.

A great shaking began in the deeper parts of the forest, a part that was just shrouded in shadows so that Spike could not see what was happening. Then the sound of bending wood and a low growl sent a fresh shot of fear into Spike, which was confirmed as he spotted the glowing yellow eyes that could only belong to a timber-wolf.

Raw terror struck Spike the dragon dumb; despite all the panicky orders issued in his mind his legs seemed to have chosen quite the peculiar time to rebel against their master. Set in frozen horror, Spike watched the beast slowly advance upon his position. The wolf bared it wooden fangs at the helpless dragonling in a way that Spike could've sworn it was more a sinister smile than a preparation for hunting. That is when he heard it. It came as the most deafening thunder clap Spike had ever heard, yet it was sunny and only partially cloudy. Before Spike knew it, he was flying! Higher than the clouds and well above the timber-wolf's grasp as its cry of disappointment brought a wave of relief to Spike. It was at this moment Spike began to address the white elephant in the room, how in the hay he was flying?

Spike quickly surmised that it was simply Rainbow Dash and the boom he had heard earlier was her signature "Sonic Rain-boom" and was no doubt praising herself at this very moment and would continue to do so well after she had slowed down and loosen her grip to keep him close to her body enough for Spike to hear her as well as turn his head to thank her. After another minute or so, the flight did begin to decelerate until coming to a complete stop on one of the many clouds and Spike was let go to step onto the air pillow. Once he gained his balance and turned to thank the rainbow haired ruffian. Except, the sky-blue fur was now pale yellow, hair a stark platinum white cut short and combed into an edge pointing up at a slanted angle on the top of his head, eyes were covered with an odd pair of sunglasses, with a frame that went under the round and orange lenses, yet the most disturbing change was that Rainbow Dash was now only measly 3' 7", a far cry from her usual 4 feet even. It took Spike a moment to process this info equated to this **not** being Rainbow Dash and thus his savior was somepony else completely.

Spike's savior gave a toothy smile and, in a booming voice completely uncharacteristic of his stature, triumphantly announced himself, "Why hello little one, I do hope you are alright." He glanced around himself as if the now far away and far below timber-wolf was of some danger to them still. "My name is Sen, little one," He continued as he was still checking their surroundings, "A wanderer and musician and the best flyer throughout the lands, at your service."

Once satisfied that they were truly safe, Sen landed and promptly began to check the tiny cloud for faults or traps. The process continued as Sen checked every square inch on and inside the tiny cloud. Growing impatient but not wanting to offend his savior, Spike politely made the universal "attention please" sign of quietly coughing into his curled hand. Sen picked up immediately and pulled his head out of the fourth hole he had made in the cloud to checks its insides. _Do clouds even have insides?_ Thought Spike as Sen turned his head towards Spike with an inquiring look. Having not thought this far ahead, Spike gave an awkward smile and scratched the back of his head, "I, uh, don't think there's anything that can hurt us hear, don'tcha think so too?" Spike glanced all about himself as he spoke, not having the courage to meet his savior's potentially annoyed look. But Sen was more bemused than anything else as he gave a smirk himself and removed his sunglasses to reveal his storm-cloud gray eyes and spoke in an accent not too unfamiliar to one of a resident of Canterlot, an urban and faintly regal enunciation could be heard in his voice that left Spike to wonder if he was once part of a family higher up in the government. Sen spoke softly as if he was giving and important lesson to a toddler, "One cannot be too careful when a life is at stake, not matter how insignificant of significant that life might be."

_What an odd fellow _thought Spike and was about to ask Sen to let him down on the ground to continue his search for _Rainbow Dash, _the thought made Spike cringe on the inside when he heard snoring near him, on the cloud floating next to his own in fact.

"Hey, Sen, would you mind flying me over to that cloud over their?"

"Of course, little one, though, if you don't mind me asking, why?"

Spike took a moment to collect his thoughts on that matter (and to suppress his annoyance at Rainbow Dash for putting him through this) and quickly summarized his being at the Everfree forest and why he had been sent there. Sen stood there quietly as Spike recounted his tale and upon its culmination, he rubbed his chin and asked "so, you were sent out to find your friend, correct?" Spike nodded, "and because of this friend and her dereliction of duty, your life was put in mortal peril, correct?" Spike had never thought of it to be so bad, but if was accurate so he nodded again. Suddenly, Spike could sense the anger flaring up in Sen as he puffed out a scoff, and made the most disgusted face and announced," Where is this heretic of a friend you speak of? I shall give her a good reason to be slacking off forthwith!" Spike mentally sniggered at the thought of Rainbow Dash being beaten up by this tiny stallion, but remembered the awesome display of speed he had seen only minutes before and began to fear Sen might be more than us talk.

"Look, it's fine, you don't need to beat her up or anything, just help me find her, in fact, I think she's just over there." Spike pointed at the snoring cloud floating a few yards away which snapped Sen out of his righteous tirade and promptly apologized, "Of course… little one, you're right, justice would best be served for her to be put back to work as should have been doing long ago."

Spike hopped atop Sen, which was a small fit to say the least and; he persisted to fall of Sen the moment the pegasus was ready for takeoff. Eventually, under the suggestion of the lightning colored pony, a grudging Spike held up his arms while Sen flew up behind him to wrap his forelegs around the drake and fly off just as Sen had saved him moments before.

It took only seconds for them to reach the other cloud and sure enough, they found their culprit peacefully sleeping away the day despite the commotion that had transpired. Spike slipped from Sen's grip and landed safely on the cloud feet away from Rainbow Dash. Spike, still too kind for his own good, slowly inched forward; intending to gently wake up Rainbow Dash from her nap when a deafening roar came up behind him.

"GET UP AND STAND TALL, SOLDIER!" boomed Sen, again entirely too big a voice for such a small stature.

This visibly shook Rainbow Dash from her sleep as she immediately sprung up and waved her head back in forth frantically, "Wha-? Who's yell-" "I DIDN'T GIVE YOU PERMISSION TO SPEAK, WHELP, ARE YOU EVEN AWARE OF WHAT HAS HAPPENED? WHY YOU SHOULD BE REPRIMANDED?"

Sen spoke in sharp blasts like the sound of multiple cannons going off in quick successions. Rainbow Dash gave an incredulous look and, still wearing off the effects of prolonged sleep, stammered out, "I-I'm in trouble? For what?"

Sen, still only barley able to control his anger snapped, "I HAVE JUST SAVED YOUR FRIEND'S LIFE!" he pointed at Spike, who was becoming increasingly worried of what this confrontation might evolve into. "AN ACTION THAT WOULD'VE BEEN UNNECESSARY IF YOU HAD NOT ADHERED TO YOUR PERSISTENT PROCRASTINATION PROBLEM AND JUST DONE YOUR JOB!" Sen emphasized the last three words, letting them hang in the air for a few seconds, and did not seem the least bit winded from the exertion.

Baffled, Rainbow Dash looked at Spike, silently asking for an update on what she had missed. Spike cleared his throat and gave her the rundown of the events that had been acted out without her knowledge, at the end of the report, Rainbow Dash had begun to see the error of her ways and absently rubbed her right hoof into cloud as she apologized, "Oh, uh, gee, sorry about that Spike, I shouldn't have put your through that."

She looked up at Spike, who smiled at the gesture and nodded his head to show he had accepted the apology. Having seen Rainbow Dash accept responsibility for her actions, the anger Sen had died down considerably yet not entirely. "Come, Spike, I shall fly you back to your original workplace so you can finish what you were doing before you were sent to find this slacker."

This, and the previous bouts of oral abuse she had received from this little colt, sent Rainbow Dash over the edge. She stalked up to the still hovering Sen, and looked eye to eye with him. "Hey pal, I don't know what your problem is, or where you get off acting liking some sort of drill sergeant. But I said I was sorry, and I mean it, so you and your little fairy wings can just shove off while I fly Spike back to the library."

She smirked spitefully and added in a tone not unlike that of a parent talking down to her offspring, "I'm pretty sure you're too young to be flying anyways, so why don't you let an adult handle the big bad job of ferrying little Spikey back."

Sen's face showed no signs of anger yet it began to radiate from his small body, he put on his orange sunglasses once more and only let the faintest of whispers fall from his mouth with a single question, "Care to put your money where your mouth is?"

Rainbow Dash's mouth spread into a sinister smile and ordered, "Spike, hop on and hold tight, we're about to go on a bumpy ride."

Spike gulped at the implications of this new development but knew, in lieu of the thought of being stuck up on this four by five foot mattress in the sky with a hungry, and now probably mad, timber wolf still on the prowl, he had not much in way of options. The little dragon silently and obediently climbed up onto Rainbow Dash's back while she and Sen never broke their gaze. Once, Spike was situated, Rainbow Dash's smile grew even wider and began the countdown.

"3….." Rainbow slowly turned to her left to face the way of the library and Spike gripped harder as to prepare for the jet like proportions of the takeoff that he was sure to ensue, yet, as Spike checked behind himself, Sen had not so much let a single muscle twitch, The pale yellow stallion with his face set the way he was at the issuing of the challenge despite the fact that he himself was the challenger. Rainbow Dash, having not taken heed of her opponent's apparent lack of interest, continued the count, "2…." The orange sunglasses did nothing but hide Sen's gaze yet Spike got the feeling that Sen was staring at the same spot Rainbow Dash was before she took form; as if losing this race was not even a concern, not a possibility, in his mind. "1… GO!"

To say Rainbow Dash took off like a bullet would be an insult, before Spike realized it, the cloud where they had started was but a distant speck in the sky and he could feel they were only gaining speed. Spike was soon forced to turn his head to face front to see the ever increasing size Ponyville coming into blurry view. It was a wondrous sight, whenever Spike's eyes could focus well enough, to behold as the new colors brought upon by Pinkie Pie's decoration armies and even noticed the strands upon strands of lights across all the builds, fences, tables, and even statues which begged the question (other than where in the world Pinkie Pie got so many lights) of how spectacular the bird's-eye view must be at night. Yet even amongst all these sights, one could not leave the forefront of Spike's mind. It was when Rainbow Dash had just begun to fly and in that split second, Spike, whose head was still facing behind them upon takeoff. He saw a smile, a smile on Sen's face.

That's when Spike heard it again. The boom that was not Rainbow Dash's. There was no warning, no warm-up period or build up that took for the rainbow mare's famous Rain-Boom. Sen seemed to simply start in his supersonic speed like it was his jogging pace. Needless to say the tiny speeder caught up with the pair in mere seconds and overtook them in less time. Leaving both the mare and dragon in his wake of the shockwave that jostled Spike but caused no wavering in Rainbow Dash's flight-path but left her no less stunned.

_The little punk is beating me _thought Rainbow Dash as she witnessed Sen's now disappearing dot on the horizon _the little punk is beating me! _The thought of losing had finally dawned on Rainbow Dash as she herself began to accelerate at an alarming speed as well. Spike knew what was to come next and did the only thing he could and formed a death grip around the mare's sides and awaited the inevitable; the famous Rain-Boom.

Yet another sonic boom rocked the Equestrian sky for the third time within the same hour. However, this one was a bit more colorful as the entire visible spectrum of light exploded from the moment Rainbow Dash broke the sound barrier. At that moment Spike was nearly thrown off and caused his claws to nearly lose their grip but the prospect of falling hundreds of feet did not bode well in his mind or his claws as he quickly re-doubled his efforts to hold on despite the indention caused by the air he was now speeding by.

Now at an equivocal speed with Sen, the duo soon caught up with him and the race became neck and neck. Then the astonishing happened as Sen seemed to begin to lose speed; Spike dared a peek behind him and saw but could only make out the yellow blur that had to be Sen close behind them, but the strain was too much with the G-forces he was experiencing to keep looking that way as Spike quickly re-oriented himself to face forward with his face resting on the mare's back.

Rainbow Dash saw this as well as made evident with the huge grin plastered across her face as she took the lead an steered them toward Spike's drop-off point at the library.

_But this didn't make sense, how could somepony so effortlessly break the sound barrier yet tire so easily?_ Spike pondered these thoughts and tested it against numerous theories in the few seconds they had before reaching the front door of the library. It was all going to be decided in a few seconds, the true flyer worthy of world renown as both Sen and Dash boasted about.

And a fourth explosion rocked the air once more. It was not the same as the initial sonic boom, it was quieter. As if somepony was prodding at another barrier that could not yet be broken for the mere act of touching the wall take immense speed. That was Sen, he had sped up once again to a speed unparalleled by any Spike had seen in his life; much faster than Rainbow Dash regardless of any extra weight she was carrying.

Sen closed the gap between him and the duo and made it to the door in the space of Nano-seconds. Unable to accept defeat, Rainbow Dash continued to accelerate despite the encroaching mass of the library in the vain hope of somehow beating the tiny Sen; despite her clear loss as Sen had already landed next to the door of the library. Consumed in self-praise Sen had not noticed Rainbow Dash's lack of deceleration and turned to greet the figure next to the door to the left of him.

"Hello Brother! I apologize for being late but you see I-" Sen was unable to finish his sentence of extolment as a sky blue and purple rocket barreled into both him as the stranger he was greeting side-stepped the matter, sending the whole group flying a good 100 feet before ending in a sprawl.

As the dust settled, Spike opened his eyes to the groans of both Sen and Rainbow Dash and to discover he was buried beneath both. The little dragon quickly climbed his way out and dusted himself off. Doing so, he noticed a looming shadow behind him, one big enough to warrant fear in him as he thought it might be one of the Princesses.

Spike quickly turned around to face the newcomer that Sen was earlier greeting to find a simple earth pony. Though simple was far from describing this new colt in front of the tiny dragon.

The newcomer was easily 5' 8" making him nearly a foot taller than Big Mac by Spike's assessment. The earth pony had deep brown fur with jet black hair cut short under a peculiar pale straw hat with a small brim at best, Spike guessed was only 2 inched wide, that was upturned in the back with a textile band running around were the forehead would be under the strange hat. Yet the most interesting thing about the new pony was his eyes. Overall, Spike assessed the new guy's age to be in the late twenties, yet his storm grey eyes seemed to be that of a grandfather's. Eyes completely alien on the face of a youth such as the one towering in front of him, their origin leaving Spike only in wonder as those very eyes seemed to examine Spike, not in some cold calculated manner but distant all the same, never betraying what emotion or thought the stranger might be having at that moment. This examination continued for a second more until they came to rest on Spike's own eyes, the last thing the stranger seemed to check.

The young dragon heard a rustling behind him as he held the gaze that he could only assume were Sen and Rainbow Dash straightening themselves out.

"As I was saying before I was _rudely_," Sen swung his head towards Rainbow Dash for unnecessary emphasis and clarification, "interrupted, greetings Brother, have you been looking for me?"

The newcomer finally broke the gaze with Spike and looked up to see past the little dragon to Sen. "Spear sent me to find you, gave up and came back and here you are."

He gestured to the group, giving Rainbow Dash the same distant look, like a surveyor calmly scanning the features before him, and returned to his brother, "You are the master flyer here, you should've been able to have sensed it coming and avoided it as easily as I did." Rainbow Dash let out a sharp laugh and stuck her tongue out to the dismayed Sen.

However, she wasn't saved from the stranger's evaluation either. "And you" he simply moved his eyes towards the jeering mare who felt a weight that could only come from one's undivided attention fall upon her "You are an expert flyer who has shown me, from this little exhibition, to have great potential but should've not only judged what you are able to handle but also taken into account of your passenger as well." The stranger spoke with a patriarchal authority that silenced Rainbow Dash quite thoroughly.

The stranger then motioned for Sen to follow, "Come on, it's time for the sound check."

Spike was almost taken back by the sound of Sen's brother's voice; the towering earth pony spoke in short and concise phrases as if words were a scarce and valuable commodity. But the truly interesting thing about his speech was his accent, the newcomer had no distinct accent as Sen did, the Brother talked like a true vagabond with no distinct tone or nuances for he seemed to have a mixture of all of them, yet Spike heard something faint in the four short lines he had heard from the stranger. A manner of speech not native to any part of Equestria yet eerily familiar to Applejack's way of talking but not the same, and it seemed that the stranger had been away from this place; wherever his original accent came from; for so long that even he had forgotten how to speak in his native variation of basic Equestrian. Yet like so many other things, it stuck with him no matter how faintly or how much he might have forgotten it, it was a part of his very being.

The stranger had turned around, briefly revealing his flank where his cutie mark is. Or should be as he, like Sen, not one to speak of.

The newcomer had already begun to walk towards the stage near the back of the library. Sen quickly shook himself from his... corrections and took to a hovering flight after his brother.

"Wait! Brother!...Kay! Hold up, I'll walk with you!" The stranger, named Kay as Spike filed that away in his mind, abruptly stopped and looked behind him with a small smirk running across his face as he waited for Sen to catch up. Once Sen caught up and increased his altitude to be eye-level with Kay; they nodded to each other and began to walk on.

Spike and Rainbow Dash watched the pair walk off around the building when Sen suddenly came back and shouted back to them, "I do hope you both are coming to the concert tonight, my brothers and I are quite the exceptional musicians you see and… oh, I am sorry about the way I greeted you earlier madam Rainbow Dash! You are a great flyer!" And with that he disappeared around the bend of the tree the library was built in again. Out of sight.

Spike turned his head to see a blushing rainbow mare that shrugged and retorted, "He ain't too bad himself." She quietly gave a half-hearted laugh as if what she said was a joke. Spike couldn't help but smirk at that and moved to open the door to the library so he could finally return to his duties and gave Rainbow Dash a final thought, "I wonder what kind of music they play."


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Pinkie Pie was ecstatic. Not that she wasn't always, but this was more so than usual, if that was possible. Her friends from a lifetime ago were here again in front of her. All together for one last rehearsal before their first show of the celebration tonight.

_It's amazing how well they've aged, hardly a thing has changed since my birthday party,_ the pink pony thought,_ are they still wearing the same accessories and hairstyles? After so long? Wow, that's commitment. It's like they were simply teleported here by some sort of time machine built by Dr. Whooves or something _Pinkie sighed to herself _but that's just silly. _

Her mind was fully equipped to continue following the rollercoaster that was Pinkie Pie' train of thought but was abruptly brought out of her pondering by Spear who had put back on his black sunglasses. "Yo, Pinks, you mind tellin' us what you think" He asked. The trio of that was the band had formed a line in front of her, awaiting her reply.

Having not followed this conversation at all as she had trailed herself away by humming some song to herself and moving on to her thoughts of only a second before. Pinkie Pie had absolutely no idea what the white stallion was asking, so to not seem impolite she attempted to answer as best she could, "What I think about whatandthewhonow?"

Spear smiled and asked again, "Kay, Sen, and I" He gestured to each pony as he said their name, "were asking your opinion on how we should run the show tonight and if there was something special you might want us to do."

Still not really following the conversation, as her attention span usually never did, Pinkie Pie quickly dissuaded her own thoughts of how different these supposed blood related brothers looked and came up with the only respectable answer she could. "Come on guys, I'm sure you'll just blow their socks off no matter what you do; not that ponies wear socks or anything or would need to…what are socks?" Now faced with a new conundrum, Pinkie Pie put her hoof to her chin and began to ponder that thought as well. Eventually walking off, the band took this as a cue to recommence practice.

Spear just smiled and turned to see Kay and Sen had much the same expression on their faces as he spoke, "You heard the boss, we know what we're doing so let's do it." Sen's smile grew even wider across his face and Kay nodded at the sentiment as his half smirk seemed to grow ever so slightly as well. The trio returned to their respective spots on stage, Spear in the middle of the stage with his guitar strapped on and a mic inches from his face. Kay stood about 15 feet away to Spear's left on bass, close to his grand piano that he played whenever the song called for it. Sen was in the back atop a raised platform with his extensive drum kit and his stool (set as low as possible so he could reach the drums and special pedals made for the kick drums and crash cymbals though he will never tell a soul) and mic near his mouth as well as he did back-up vocals as well.

The stage itself was a massive crescent circle spanning slightly wider than the great tree it was built against and even tapered into the great plant for extra support. The stage was a simple wooden platform with metal railings all around and above the stage for the lights, speakers, and pyrotechnics that were going to be controlled by Vinyl Scratch as she was hired for later that night (and to be the second night's opening act as well). Of course, the trio was not about to waste any of the floor space granted to them by the stage as it was planned for the other performers hired out of Ponyville for whatever part the band needed filled, as they always did, to take their places there.

At the moment, the power was cut off so the brothers were playing their parts mostly as private reminders to themselves and fully trusted the musicians they hired to play perfectly without the need of extra rehearsals (they were backgrounds after all). Having spent so long as musicians the brothers eventually got to the point where they needed only little remembrances to one another on certain songs and none at all on others. One might ask how they, being ponies and all, are able to play instruments as they have no fingers, arguably the most important appendage to the music making process! The answer is quite simple really: magic! Or whatever else might tickle your fancy; all in all it is completely irrelevant to the story or its teller whether or not this simple fact is accepted for it is as it is. But I digress.

_Meanwhile…_

Spike had just walked into the library only to be confronted by his guardian/boss/teacher/older sister, Twilight Sparkle, "where have you been, Spike?" yelled the lavender pony from her desk without even looking up. Exhausted and exasperated, Spike forced an unseen smile and droned out a quick and boorish report as he made his way to the longing couch, "Rainbow Dash is back to work and I met two of the band members preforming tonight." The little dragon enunciated the end to his report with the sound of him landing on the couch and was instantly on the verge of sleep when the question pierced his oncoming sweet embrace with his dreams, "Band? What do you mean? How'd you meet them?" Still in a state of half consciousness, the young drake spoke in a much more truthful manner his conscious-self would later kick him for, "One of them saved me from a giant timberwolf…" "Oaky, were they nice to you?" The obilivity to the preceding statement were lost to both parties for a time until the words finally sunk into the work laden mare, "WHAT?!"

_Author's Note:__ I do so apologize for the long update gap and short chapter this go around, and as I do not believe in excuses I shall make none and simply promise more of this tale is to be published soon._


End file.
